Urban Jacksonville

Two of your best bets for achieving awesome during the 2008 Jacksonville Film Festival are the parking garage party on Thursday the 15th and Hip-Hop For The Masses on Sunday the 18th.

I’m stunned that Jacksonville came up with something as awesome as a parking garage party. I went to one called Austin Blowout when I was at SXSW and it was the most fun I had in a while. Granted this COJ sponsored event will likely be much more domesticated, but fun none the less.

Thursday, May 15 (also the 22nd and 29th)
5 - 8 p.m, Rooftop of the Water Street Garage
Free Admission

6 pm. – 8 p.m. - Ceremony and Screening of Inside The Circle
8 p.m. – 11 p.m. – Hip-Hop For The Masses street party

Hip-Hop For The Masses is a Sunday street party that will include a screening of Inside the Circle

The multi-award-winning documentary “Inside the Circle, tells the story of two strikingly talented b-boys (break-dancers), Josh and Omar, best friends who become rivals when they join competing dance crews. Immersed in the b-boy culture of defiant creativity, Omar rises to international renown, while Josh tangles with the criminal justice system.

The Hip-Hop for the Masses street party will take place outside of the Florida Theatre with a one-on-one b-boy battle for $200, live graffiti artists and a hip-hop stage with guest DJ’s and performers.

$15 Includes film presentation and street party. Buy Tickets

Tags: hip hop for the masses, inside the circle

UPDATED: 1:47 PM

Alright Jacksonville, let’s blow the Jacksonville Film Festival out this year. Last year’s festival came and went without me even noticing it. Urban Jacksonville will be having film festival related posts all week. Screw all the other cool stuff going on!

My goal for this year’s Film Festival is to see one more movie than I did last year, which was zero, so I should be able to meet that goal. On Friday Adrienne kicked off the coverage with ARolling Out the Red, The 2008 Jacksonville Film Festival calling it her favorite time of the year.

Today I’m going to let you know all the place, besides Urban Jacksonville, you can get news, showtimes, venue locations and anything else you need to know about the festival. This should be a fun week so let’s get started.

The JaxCal blog will be covering the festival all week. They have an interesting art-oriented point of view so I’m sure they will have some good posts.

EU Jacksonville posted their 2008 Jacksonville Film Festival guide (PDF). Pick up this weeks EU for a printed pull-out guide. Here’s what the guide says:

Our writers have already watched a good deal of the films featured, so we have some reviews from a local perspective. Whether you’re looking for a complete schedule of where, when and what films or just some insight to select the features you are most interested in, there isn’t a better partner you could have at the Film Fest than the EU.

There’s also the official Jacksonville Film Festival website, which is very nice by the way, where you can sign up for email updates and schedule changes. Check out the Jacksonville Film Festival blog where you can find bits of information like this:

The opening night of the Jacksonville Film Festival, May 15, will feature the independent film Crazy…and the appearance of the film’s leading actress, Ali Larter. Larter will be taking a break from her role in Heroes over in L.A. to jet to the River City to be a part of the premier. The film holds a special connection to Jacksonville, as it tells the story of the legendary Nashville guitarist Hank Garland, who in his final years of life called Orange Park his home

The official site has pretty much any information you might need about the festival including:

1. Films
2. Programs
3. Events
4. Panels
5. Schedule
6. Tickets
7. Venues

Don’t even bother going to the Times Union website. Uhhg. You’ll be greeted by something like this, if you find it. You might be safer sticking with the print version.

Which will no doubt be competing with Folio Weekly for print eyeballs. Especially after last weeks Folio cover story which pretty much said the Times Union is a sinking ship.

Updates
The Downtown Jacksonville website lists restaurants, bars and clubs and hotels for the Jacksonville Film Festival.

Tags: jacksonville film festival

It’s that time of year again!  The Jacksonville Film Festival is my favorite time of the year.  It comes and goes so quickly that I’m left wondering if it really even happened.  Last year was no exception to the awesomeness that occurs!

The festival begins Thursday evening, May 15, at the Florida Theatre with the Opening Night Celebration and the Southeast premier of Crazy, an independent feature based on the life of legendary Nashville guitarist Hank Garland.  Director, producer and writer of the film, Rick Bieber, will attend the opening night, along with some of the actors.

Things just get better from there.  Friday night is another Southeast premier!  Meteoro, a Brazillian film, will be screening at the Theatre followed by the Samba! Salsa! And Swing! Party at the Jacksonville Landing, which is included in the price of the film ticket.

Saturday is the Hollywood Night Film Presentation with the screening of The Year of Getting to Know Us, a film starring Sharon Stone, Jimmy Fallon, Lucy Liu, Tom Arnold and Ileana Douglas.  The film is about a successful New York journalist forced to face the realization that if he does not learn how to feel, he will face an empty life.  This is the film I’m most excited to see.

Sunday night is going to be oh so hot at Hip Hop for the Masses!  Inside the Circle is screening beforehand at the Theatre and sounds like a really cool film.  It’s a multi-award-winning documentary about two talented B Boys who are best friends and become rivals when they join competing break dance crews.  Hip Hop for the Masses is a street party right outside of the Florida Theatre with B Boy circles, live graffiti artists and a hip-hop stage with guest DJ’s and performers.  Heck to the yes!

Visit the Film Festival site to find out about the other films that are showing.  I can’t testify enough as to the amazingness of this event.  Thanks to the Florida Theatre and the sponsors for making it an undoubtably good time.  Don’t miss out!

If anyone found a Blackberry Pearl last night at TSI, it’s mine! Please return it. Reward! It was a fun show even though I lost my phone.

This will be a massive show. Not only do these bands kick ass, it’s right after Art Walk. I missed seeing The DeathSet four times at SXSW. It sucked. Wednesday should make up for that. Bring your fun pants, it should be a wild one.

Buy Tickets Online

Oh! I have two guest list spots. If you want to be on the guest list, leave a comment or contact me and tell me why you deserve it. The best answers by end of day Tuesday will get on the guest list.

Bonde Do Role

The DeathSet

Heavy Flow

P.S. sorry about the animated gif! I should have told Brendon no animation, but I kinda like it so it stays. It will only be there for three days anyway.

Tags: art walk, bonde do role, heavy flow, the deathset, tsi

MOCA Jacksonville is celebrating five years in downtown Jax on May 16, 2008. The party will feature Jacksonville’s most acclaimed pastry chefs in a pastry art competition to create the evening’s most outrageous contemporary sculptured cake.

The festivities begin at 8 p.m. and last until midnight. Guests will enjoy live entertainment, hors d’oeuvres, specialty cocktails and desserts by participating competitors, including:

Cakes by Patrice Drinkard
Choux Designer Cakes and Pastries
Cinotti’s Bakery
Edgewood Bakery
Etiquette of Chocolate
Kakes by Katie
Sheila’s Cakes & Specialty Treats
Stover’s Custom Cakes
Tasteful Creations
The Cake Shop of San Jose
The Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island

Reservations for the birthday bash are required on or before May 9, 2008. Information about ticket prices can be found on the MOCA Jax site. I’ll be assisting Katie Dumphy of Tasteful Creations, so please say hello and grab a piece of cake!

Beginning in mid-May, city commuters in Washington, D.C., will have an alternative to stuffy bus rides and long traffic lines.  Clear Channel Outdoor (an outdoor advertising company), partnered with the district’s Department of Transportation, will launch the country’s first bike-share service, SmartBike DC.

Bike sharing services offer urbanites low-cost access to bicycles within the inner-city to ease traffic congestion, curb pollution and boost physical activity.  Bike sharing operates on a self-serve model (no attendants) and is geared toward short-term uses.  New technologies including GPS and RFID tags (radio-frequency identification) and automated payment kiosks make the systems more secure and user friendly.

The SmartBike DC system will offer bicycles at key locations in the central business district.  Bicycles are parked at docking points which use a proprietary locking system to ensure that each bicycle is securely stored.  The service is accessible via online subscription and subscribers will receive a SmartBike DC user card that provides access to every station of the program.  An individual annual subscription is $39.99.

Bike stations consist of a horizontal rack with docking points.  The docking points, as pictured above, are parking slots with locks, and they secure the bicycle when it is parked at a station.  An operational team manages the rotation of bicycles for each station to assure a proper ratio of available bicycles to drop-off locations.

How could most cities afford this?  As mentioned before, in the case of Washington, D.C., the district’s Department of Transportation partnered with Clear Channel Outdoor, a private advertising company.  The contract allows the private company to provide advertising on as many as 800 bus shelters.  Public-private partnerships are common among existing bike-share programs, according to Paul DeMaio, the founder of MetroBike LLC, a bike-share consultancy based in Washington, D.C.

Bike-share programs have proved successful in many other countries so far, including France, Spain and Austria.  Leading street-furniture company JC Decaux launched its Paris operation, Velib’, in 2007.  Today, more than 20,000 bikes are available at 1,400 stations.  Paris has four times more bike-rental stations than subway stations and the system is completely financed by advertising and rental charges.

The market in the U.S. is wide-open right now.  Most recently, Clear Channel secured San Francisco as the next city for which to develop street furniture plans, most likely including a bike-share component.  Chicago has expressed interest in bringing a bike-share program to its streets as well.

If Jacksonville had a bike-share system around its core neighborhoods, traffic and pollution would decrease and our city would be populated with a healthier group.  Some commuters would not be forced to wait for a bus if they did not have far to travel.  Also, commuters who bike already would not waste time locking their bike up properly and worrying that it might be stolen.

So.  Who wants to step up with the sponsorship?

Tags: bike sharing, MetroBike LLC, SmartBike DC